Luck O' the Pigeons

Korean Bear!

The other day I received a copy of the new Korean edition of Very Hairy Bear! Yay!

Beastie of the Month

Humpty was pushed.

Shifty Peacocks

These peacocks would like to remind you that I'll be signing Big George and other books tomorrow (aka Saturday) at 2pm at the lovely Head House Books. Hope to see you there. However, if you're closer to Old Greenwich, CT, stop by Just Books on Saturday morn to meet Big George author, Anne Rockwell.

Niles and Pete

Another Ape

This time with a hard charcoal pencil on Arches cover stock.

From Washington to Wash

Big George Booksigning!

On Saturday February 28th at 2 pm, I'll be at Head House Books in Philadelphia talking about and signing copies of Big George. It's my first event at this great little indie store. If you're in the area, stop by and say howdy.

Above is the sketch of Washington's crossing of the Delaware from the book dummy. My wise editor and art director at Harcourt pointed out that it would be better for the final illustration to have the action going from left to right instead, leading the eye to the page turn. A simple change, but very important.

For a detailed look at the long and twisty road to publication for Big George, check out author Anne Rockwell's blog.

Charcoal girl

Reckless Enthusiasm

Beastie of the Month

Names, anyone?

Big Brother

A big, tall, up-on-stilts thank you to everybody who stopped by the Main Line Art Center yesterday. I had a great time and I hope it becomes a yearly event. It was fantastic to not only meet so many readers and aspiring illustrators, but also to hang out with other usually hermit-like illustrators... and to ogle at so many original illustrations!

And for those of you who were interested in my paintings for sale, there are still three of 'em available that will be up on my soon-to-be-established Etsy site (I'll probably make prints of them, too).

The Main Line (you know, like in The Philadelphia Story)

Hullo, hullo, hullo! Long time no posting, what?

This Sunday (2/8) I'll be at the Main Line Art Center for a free day of fun called The Art of Illustration. I am only one of a truly impressive list of children's book illustrators, and we'll all be hanging around, talking about our work, signing books, offering tips to kids, and giving presentations (mine starts at noon).

I don't often sell my work, but I will have some illustrations for sale at the event (including The Adventurer, seen above... maybe...I kinda like how this turned out). What doesn't sell and/or prints of the stuff will eventually wind up on my soon-to-be-established Etsy site. It looks like Mr. Biggs will be offering some super cool work for sale as well.

If you're in the Philadelphia area, stop by and say hullo, hullo, hullo! (I've been reading a lot of Wodehouse lately).

Simulcast Sketching

Made while watching the ALA awards.

It IS Hot Chocolate Weather, After All

I've added a bunch o' mugs to my Zazzle shop, including four from my recent winter series of drawings. Click on "Mugs" under Product Type to see all of them. I have the Tutubeastie mug with the color handle and I must say it has a nice heft to it.

ALA Awards

Congratulations to all of the award winners! I'm particularly happy about The Graveyard Book of course. Well deserved indeed. And it's wonderful to see honors going to the great Marla Frazee and Melissa Sweet, not to mention Uri Shulevitz who literally wrote the book about illustrating picture books.

Scarlet and Black

Beastie of the Month

A new year, a new monthly feature. If you can think of one, give this fella a name in the comments section.

Ape Escape!

Pub Weekly, Research, and Gen. Washington

Big George paintings in progress as I start to lose the elusive winter sun (December 2007).

There's a nice review of George in the new edition of Publishers Weekly. Anne Rockwell's evocative text inspired me to read more about the life of Washington in preparation for that book. The two books that helped me get a sense of the man most were His Excellency by Joseph L. Ellis and 1776 by David McCullough. I highly recommend both. I also listened to the audio version of 1776 while painting Big George. There's just something about the sound of David McCullough's voice. He could make the phone book captivating.